Bianchi quickest for Ferrari as test ends early

Jules Bianchi was quickest in the second day of testing at Silverstone having swapped cars from Marussia to Ferrari.

Bianchi, who stood in for Kimi Raikkonen who is recuperating after his crash in Sunday’s British Grand Prix, ended the day two-hundredths of a second slower than Felipe Massa’s best mark from yesterday, setting a 1’35.262.

The test came to an early end when the red flag was shown when Giedo van der Garde crashed his Sauber.

“In the afternoon, during my last outing on the soft tyres, I unfortunately lost the rear of the car and went into the barrier on my second lap when I was pushingDaniil Kvyat was second-fastest for Toro Rosso ahead of Kevin Magnussen. Lewis Hamilton set the fifth-fastest time for Mercedes after bringing out the red flags early in the day by spinning at Stowe.

Caterham were at the bottom of the times for the second day running as a problem with the control unit for the MGU-H limited Julian Leal to covering 51 laps. It also meant they had to abandon their plans to run Rio Haryanto in the car.

Charles Pic was tenth-quickest for Lotus who had a light day while conducting tyres tests for Pirelli, which included running prototype 18-inch tyres and wheels on their car for part of the day.

I’ve been wondering the same thing. Ferrari is going to go through a period of rebuilding. Why not take a risk and get a younger driver to grow with them? From how poorly Kimi has performed they won’t be losing anything by dumping him. The big question is his contract and how much they would have to pay, if anything. There could be some sort of performance clause where he can be fired.

good for bianchi, ferrari should probably give him seat after next year if kimi retires, unless kimi changes his mind if ferrari does well next year fingers crossed. 3 yr wait is not bad for a ferrari seat.

actually i wouldn’t say it worked out well for perez unfortunately, he fell out of ferrari’s radar when he joined mclaren, we all know what happened there. Though driving for better car is tempting he should only do it if its sauber or wait for 1 more year.

Dont get me wrong but Force India isn’t that bad. I mean, theyrr probably the best car to drive when it comes to tyre conservagion and theyrr smart in picking their driver to hopefully gt them.up to a front running position, even their test driver is a great score with tons of potential

@austus Yes, Alonso regularly runs low fuel in FP2, basically a straight up test run for qualifying. So they usually look a little more competitive in FP2 than when it’s qualifying time, as the teams carry a little more in practice by varying amounts. But Alonso probably just wants direct practice at nailing that Q lap in the Ferrari for himself.

i think that the problem is getting the grips with the current V6 Turbos, rather than different cars, Bianchi has adapted to the new era much faster than Kimi, so its not just Ferrari or Marusia, its just a different era